Students warned: Bulging biceps, big guns advance unhealthy masculinity‘Being emotional is manly in my opinion’The size of G.I. Joe’s biceps and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s guns in the Terminator movies is proof that the dominant form of masculinity is out of control.
That message and similar ones were conveyed recently to students during Vanderbilt University’s “Healthy Masculinities Week,” organized by the Margaret Cuninggim Women’s Center. Attendance for students was optional.
The Vanderbilt week kicked off with a lecture by the first man to minor in women’s studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Jackson Katz. (His alma mater now offers a bachelor’s in women, gender and sexuality studies.)
The self-described “anti-sexist activist” and filmmaker said that sexual violence and domestic abuse are men’s issues and that men would “benefit tremendously from having this conversation.”
Katz founded a consulting firm that “provides gender violence prevention and leadership training to institutions in the public and private sectors” and has pioneered the use of bystander training in the U.S. military, according to his website.
At the event, Katz likened racism to sexism, and told students that “people interrupt other people when they make racist comments.” Therefore they should have the same mindset in response to sexist comments, Katz said.
But he backtracked during an audience question-and-answer session, admitting that sexist comments can be contextually appropriate in a humorous setting.
Hasta la vista, PCPolitical correctness has value, Katz said. Supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump say like they him for “not being politically correct,” but what they really mean is they like him “for saying racist and sexist comments,” Katz added.
Pop culture also has an insidious effect on masculinity, Katz continued, imploring the audience not to “check your brain and moral conscience when you go to the movies.”
He showed clips from his film Tough Guise, in which Katz claims “there has been a ratcheting up of what it takes to be considered menacing in the 1980s and 90s.”
As evidence, Katz noted that G.I. Joe’s biceps have gotten larger over the years and that Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone use bigger guns for their iconic roles as the Terminator and Rambo than did Humphrey Bogart in his 1930s and 1940s film roles.
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/24488/
. (you will may/be live target practice).
